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The Federated Suns would contest the Hegemony control of Kentares, with the Fourth Avalon Hussars launching a campaign in the late 2440s to reclaim the planet. This conflict would involve the first deployment of DropShips intended to be military 'Mech transports, with the Hegemony forces deploying a number of Manatee DropShips. The appearance of the Manatees led to some initial successes for the HAF, but the Hussars learned to exploit the light armor and weapons array of the Manatee, destroying several of the DropShips along with their transported 'Mechs. Despite this, the Manatee deployment on Kentares proved the basic viability of the idea, even if heavier fighter screens would be needed.[45]

The Kentares Memorial reminds of the 52 million people killed during the Kentares Massacre

Kentares was one of the worlds occupied by the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery during the massive invasion of the Federated Suns that began in May 2787. Although the naval battle at Cholame fought in March and April 2790 had cost the AFFS a huge price, it bought the Federated Suns something badly needed - time. For fourteen months, the invasion forces from the Combine were unable to make significant gains, and the AFFS used that opportunity to provide whatever aid it could to those forces still fighting in systems such as Dobson, Galtor, Kentares and New Rhodes III.[12]

This terrible war crime, later known as the Kentares Massacre, continued for five months, during which more than 90 percent of the world's population was wiped out. It was a small compensation that, due to Jinjiro Kurita's assignment of so many regiments to the massacre and the following decline of morale in the DCMS, the Kuritan thrust into the Federated Suns collapsed.

The world itself never completely recovered despite the Federated Suns' best efforts. Various factors, including the remembrance of the massacre and the looming presence of the Draconis Combine border kept people and investors away.

Some of the first clashes of the FedCom Civil War took place on Kentares IV whose duke Eric Dresari publicly denounced ArchonKatherine Steiner-Davion as a despot and usurper inciting demonstrations among the people of Kentares against her rule. Therefore she ordered the 5th Donegal Guards to take control of the planet. The situation escalated and culminated in the execution of Duke Dresari and his family. The surviving family members led a guerrilla war to regain control of the world.[47]

Kentares IV is a temperate and fertile world with plenty of common ores and other natural resources and almost ninety percent of the surface covered by water. But since the devastation of the First Succession War much of the planet's land mass has been covered by ruined cities and factories, which were never rebuilt.